Parole denied for Joey Didier's killer

SPRINGFIELD - Parole was denied Thursday for Robert Henry Lower, who will remain behind bars at Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro for the 1975 killing of Joey Didier.

The Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted unanimously to keep Lower in prison. It was his 19th attempt at parole. He has never got a single vote in favor of release singe he first became eligible for parole in 1985.

Lower, 75, won't get another chance to ask for parole until 2019, the maximum five-year distance between hearings that the board can impose.

The decision was a relief for Diane Didier-Adolphson, Joey's sister, who has to relive the horrific events that led to her brother's death each time Lower fights for parole.

"Illinois will be a safer place for at least five more years," Didier-Adolphson said.

Joey Didier went missing March 4, 1975 shortly after beginning his morning newspaper route on Fulton Avenue in Rockford. His body was found 11 days later in a Boy Scout camp cabin in Jo Daviess County. He had been raped and strangled to death. Lower later confessed that he couldn't sleep and decided to go "driving around looking for a paperboy," according to Register Star archives.

About 20,000 people signed petitions to lobby the Prisoner Review Board to deny parole, including 2,325 that signed the Register Star's online petition. There were also about 40 letters sent to the board asking for parole to be denied, Didier-Adolphson said. The board takes petitions and letters into consideration when it decides whether to grant parole.

"My mom and dad taught us all that there is power in numbers and this is absolutely a testimony," Didier-Adolphson said. "Together people can make a difference and it did make a difference."

Didier-Adolphson thanked all who signed petitions and sent letters. She also thanked Winnebago County State's Attorney Joe Bruscato and Jo Daviess County State's Attorney John Hay, who each traveled to Springfield on Thursday to help lobby for Lower to stay in prison.

Lower's health has faded during his 38 years in prison. He is on dialysis and has lost one leg due to health issues, Didier-Adolphson said.

The Review Board member who interviewed him said Lower has "resigned himself to the fact that he's going to die in prison," Didier-Adolphson said she learned Thursday. "Or if he does to get released he'll have to go into a nursing home."